Just months after the Nigerian government banned regulated financial institutions in the country from providing cryptocurrency-related services, a school in the West-African country is set to start accepting cryptocurrency as a means of school fees payment.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in February issued the ban through an announcement that was made via a circular.
However, New Oxford Science Academy, a private secondary school in Kano State, Nigeria, has announced its intentions to start using the cryptocurrency-related services again.
Reports indicate that the Proprietor of the school, Sabi’u Musa Haruna, will allow students to pay their tuition fees in cryptocurrency.
Speaking to journalists in Kano on Saturday, the proprietor stated that the school management took the decision after consulting parents and guardians.
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He also took the opportunity to urge the Nigerian government to embrace and regulate cryptocurrency, four months after it issued the ban.
According to Sabi’u Musa the school decided to accept cryptocurrency as school fees, because the world today is tilting towards the system.
“We believe one day, digital money will gain more acceptance than paper money,” he said.
Easing strain of payment
The New Oxford Science Academy proprietor further explained that the decision was aimed at easing the strain of payment of school fees for parents, citing that countries like El Salvador and Tanzania had expanded payment options for cryptocurrency users.
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However, he did not give specifics as to which tokens the school will accept for payment.
Prohibit transactions on cryptocurrencies
The Nigerian government, however, explained later the intention of the ban, despite the policy warning of “severe regulatory sanctions” for any bank that failed to comply with the directive from the apex bank.
The government through Governor Godwin Emefiele clarified in March that the ban was intended to “prohibit transactions on cryptocurrencies in the banking sector” rather than discourage individuals from dealing in digital assets.
In addition, Nigeria’s apex bank promised to roll out its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in 2022 with the bank’s Director of Information Technology Department, Mrs Rakiyat Mohammed, stating, “digital currency will come to life even in Nigeria.”
Bitcoin
The President of El Salvador in a press conference stated that the country will begin to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender from September 7, 2021, following the passage of the law into legislation.
Cryptocurrencies in Tanzania
Tanzania’s central bank also announced on Friday that it had begun working on directives from the government that could eventually overturn the country’s ban on cryptocurrencies.
Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan said this month the arrival of digital currencies in the East Africa nation was inevitable.
“In the financial sector, we have witnessed the emergence of blockchain technology or cryptocurrency,” Hassan said during the opening a new central bank branch in the northern town of Mwanza this month.
Her comments made shortly after El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender, prompted fresh debate over the role of cryptocurrencies in economies and remittance transfers.
Tanzania’s central bank banned cryptocurrencies in November 2019, saying they were not recognised by local law, but it now says it is adapting following the president’s comments.
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In Paraguay, there are rumours of a Bitcoin bill that will be brought to the country’s legislatures very soon.
Back in Nigeria, Bitcoin has witnessed stronger demand than in other countries according to data from Google Trends. The data shows that Nigeria ranks first among searches for Bitcoin, with Austria, Turkey and Switzerland in a close race for second.
